Abu-Dis

The firsthand story of A., our regular transit driver (we did not
witness this -- but we did see his bandaged eye).

Two weeks earlier (on Oct. 5), he was stopped by border
policemen in a jeep in Abu Dis at five am and was asked to get out,
walk around the jeep and show his ID to the BP sitting in the front
seat. As he approached that side of the jeep, the border policemen
forcefully pushed open the jeep’s door with his foot, hitting A
right in his face. As it was bleeding A went to his transit to get
a cloth to wipe the blood off his face, but the BP grabbed him by
the collar and yelled at him for going away, when he was supposed
to show his ID. There were four men in the jeep, none showed any
concern about what had happened to his eye. They threw his ID on
the ground and left. The border policemen who had pushed the door,
refused to identify himself. A. recorded the number of the
jeep.

A. went to the Maale Adumim police headquarters to
complain, where he was told that he should first get medical help.
It was 0500, so he had to wait for the clinic to open at 0800. He
needed stitches and tetanus shot, and received a statement from the
clinic about the nature of his wound. He was told by the army, that
if he wanted to lodge a complaint, he had to go to some office in
Givat Shaul. But how was he to go there, in West Jerusalem, without
a permit????? A. decided to give up on the idea of complaining – as
he feared the BP would make trouble for him as a transit driver,
and he preferred to let the incident go, so that he could continue
to make a living.

Abu Dis, 0900: No BP at the gas station, and people climbing over
the wall at various places, including the elderly and women
dragging large loads of grapes and olives. Soon enough the BP
showed up in a jeep, and began to check ID’s.

Secondhand story about the hotel guests: Some 20 of them,
professors at the Al Quds University, were taken during the night
to the yard, and had to wait there out in the cold for several
hours, while their papers were checked. Another day, they were
taken to the police station in Atarot, and warned that they would
be arrested if they stayed on the Jerusalem side of the wall (where
the hotel is located) without the proper IDs or permits. Most of
them have indeed left the hotel since, except for two professors
who have foreign passports. One of the three owners of the hotel
was also detained, and asked to sign a paper that he would not come
to the western side of the wall – but he refused to sign that he
would not stay in the building that he himself owns. It was
reported that there was shooting in the hotel yard at midnight on
one of the nights during this week.

Sawahre:

4 men say that the keys to their transits and their IDs have been
held by the border police since 7.30 that morning. They were not
carrying any passengers. The BP said they were held "because
they pick up people who come through the hills and try to bypass
the checkpoint”. It was already after around 11 and we told the BP
these men were held for more than the official three hours and
asked when they would let them go. The one in charge answered “When
I feel like it” …

A couple of phone calls and a few minutes later, they were let go,
with their transits – after promising it would be “the last time”
that they would pick up passengers ‘from the hills’.

An absurd scene: A truck full of cows approaches the barrier and
cannot go through because of its yellow license plates. Two smaller
trucks with the correct plates await them. They back up to the
larger truck, and the cows are transferred one by one to the new
vehicles, without ever touching the ground...

A truck full of olives cannot pass to the olive press in Bethlehem,
because the permit was issued before October 7, when, as already
reported, all permits were revoked.

A man told us the now common story about the many different taxis
he had to take on his way from Ramallah, where he went for
business, back to his home near Hebron. Whenever he was not allowed
to pass a checkpoint, he had to cross it by foot – sometimes
walking one or two kilometers. Today, he said, he walked 6km. A
trip that formerly took about one hour, could take him all day –
with an expense of 50 to 100 NIS (some stretches cost 15 to 25
shekels, because the taxis have to travel on dirt roads, or no
shared taxi is available and he has to take a “special”).